Within the framework of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this Friday, June 7, we share with you a rare and almost unknown fact, in which the Lord had a special mystical marriage with Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos. What does this mean? Here we explain it to you.
Betrothal and spiritual marriage
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Before presenting to you what the blessed himself told, it is necessary to take into account some terms of the mystical field to avoid misinterpretations. A saint or blessed mystic usually has ecstatic outbursts, visions and achieves a great spiritual union with God.
In the book Theology of Christian Perfectionwritten by Dominican Father Antonio Royo Marin, Doctor of Theology, describes that spiritual espousal (what other authors call mystical espousal) is “God’s promise to lead the soul to transformative union or spiritual marriage.”
Saint John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, said: “On this blessed day (of the betrothal), not only do the soul’s Vehement (passionate) longings and quarrels (painful) love that it previously had end, but, remaining adorned with the goods that I mention, begin a state of peace and delight and the softness of love.”
In the mystical espousal, the soul reaches a high degree of spiritual perfection and love for God. Then the Lord will continue to purify the soul. If he remains faithful to all the tests, then he will reach the highest level indicated by the mystics, the desired spiritual marriage.
“It is the last degree of classifiable perfection that can be achieved in this life and constitutes a prelude and immediate preparation for the blessed life of glory,” says Father Antonio Royo Marin.
On the other hand, it should be noted that in these degrees of spiritual perfection of the mystics, the soul of the person is considered the bride of Christ.
The mystical marriage of Blessed Bernard
Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos (1711-1735) was born in Spain. As a teenager he entered the Society of Jesus, became a priest and months later died at 24 years of age. He grew so much in holiness that he experienced mystical visions of Christ, the Virgin, his guardian angel, Saint Michael the Archangel and other saints such as Saint Teresa of Jesus.
God tested his firmness in faith by removing his guardian angel so that he was brutally attacked by demons. In the end, Bernardo emerged victorious and had a vision of hell.
He became the first apostle of devotion to the Heart of Jesus in Spain and Saint Peter the Apostle himself prophesied to him that one of his successors would institute the festival for the entire Church.
The book Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, Apostle of the Heart of Jesuswritten by the Augustinian Recollect priest Ángel Peña, gives details of all these mystical experiences and also presents the marriage visions of Blessed Bernard.
It is said that Bernardo saw three cords coming out of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that tied his heart tightly. Then Christ said to him: “Bernardo, this sacrifice of the three vows (chastity, poverty and obedience) makes me desire you as my wife.” Days later, the blessed privately renewed his vows. Jesus appeared to him and said: “You will be my wife.”
The following year (1730), Christ presented himself to him again and informed him that on August 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the betrothal would take place.
The Blessed himself relates that that day, after taking communion, he heard the angels singing that the bridegroom was coming, “go out to meet him.” And he saw that they put a white garment on him and Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Teresa of Jesus, Saint Francis de Sales and other saints appeared.
“I arrived at the steps of the throne of Jesus, to whom the Most Holy Mary presented me. She gave a very gentle kiss to the sacred sores on her feet; and then she asked me if she wanted to be his wife, that he wanted to be my husband. The soul annihilated in her nothingness, and in her love, she answered what I do not know: but she settled on: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord’”, described the blessed,
“Taking my right hand with his divine right hand, he told me: ‘I, in the name of my Divinity and Humanity, marry you, oh dear soul, eternally in a marriage of love, as a high priest, with my divine and human nature. Sit now on the throne of my wives, and taste what you shall possess eternally,’” he added.
The blessed continued to relate that Christ put a gold ring on him with a burning stone and then told him: “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine: what I am by nature, you participate by grace: you and I “We are one and the same.”
How to understand this mystical marriage?
The mystical espousal is not something new. They had it Saint Catherine of Siena, Santa Rosa de Lima y Saint Teresa of Jesus, who also lived spiritual marriage. But something that was very little known is that she also met Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos.
In statements to ACI Prensa, Father Ángel Peña, writer of numerous books on saints and blesseds, remembers that the spiritual (or mystical) marriage “is not between humans, a man with the man Jesus, but between God and the soul.” “The soul is considered the wife of God,” he emphasizes.
Here it should be noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the human person is a unity of body and soul, which is spiritual, immortal, will be separated from the body at death, and is “capable of being freely raised to communion with God.”
In this sense, the soul can grow in grace. Thus Saint Alphonsus Mary Liguori instilled that “all holiness and perfection of the soul consists in the love of Jesus Christ, our God, our highest good and our redeemer. Charity is what gives unity and consistency to all the virtues that make man perfect.”
On the other hand, Father Peña clarifies that mystical espousal and spiritual marriage have nothing to do with marriage “between human men, but between God and the human soul, whether of a man or a woman.”
“What happens is that consecrated women speak of Jesus as their husband, because he is like a human and spiritual ideal, but that is the same for earthly men, if they reach the corresponding degree of perfection,” points out the expert in the lives of Saints.
Abel Camasca
Journalist graduated from the Communication Sciences degree at the University of Lima. He has been part of the ACI Prensa journalistic team since 2014. Between 2016 and 2022 he was in charge of the production of the television program EWTN Noticias and Más que Noticias, a World Catholic Radio program. He often writes articles about the lives of saints.